Process of manufacturing steel



UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ABRAHAM 'l. HAY, 0F BURLINGTON, IOlVA.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING STEEL= fiPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 399,528, dated March 12, 1889. Application filed September 26, 1888. Serial No. 286,430. tiqpccimens.)

To all who/1t ii may (re/warn.-

Be it known that l, ABRAHAM 'l. HAY, a

citizen of the United States, residing at; l-lur- I lington, in the county of Des Moines and State of Iowa, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements in the Process oi. Manufactur- :i ng Steel; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact .leseription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Mypresent invent ion is directed to the manufaeture of steel for struetural purposes. F01 sueh steel :1 high degree oi tenacity and elasticity is necessary, and by my invention I am enabled to obtain a produet which nnit'ormlv meets these requirements.

My invention consists in a terrugiuous alkaline sponge hereinafter described, adapted to be combined with the iron from whieh the desired quality of steel is to be produeed.

In order to make my invention ehuarl understood, lwill proceed to describe, by way of 3 example, a practical means for carrying the same into effect.

By means of a suitable retort or furnacesuch, for instance, as that described in my patent, No. 390,964, dated October (I, 188SI )roduee a fOl'lIl lIIOHS alkalous smnge eon- H t, p

ta'ining iron, ealeium, aluminum, sodium, and ehrome. 'io produee the same, l eharge the lurnaee with a suitable stoek, sneh as the fol lowing: iron oxi flesueh as lilot Knob ore of ll[issourih v weight, sixt \,'three (63) parts; coke, fifteen (15) parts; li1nestonesueh as that of .loliet, Il1inoisseven and one-half (75) parts; aluminous subst anee-sueh as scrap bri i-kt'our (l) parts; carbonate of soda, two parts; biehromate of potash, threefourths of one part; chrome, in an oxide,

one and one-quarter (13;) part. This stock is fused, and, having been drawn oft, forms the said sponge.

I may here remark, with regard to the proportions of the substances employed in the production of the sponge, that the relative amounts given above need not be rigidly adhered to. ()n the eoutrar v,for the best results and greatest economy said proportions should be governed by the requirements arising from the composition of the crude-iron stock and from the particular uses to which the steel product is to be applied, whether for bridge members, railwava'ails, axles, or other structural shapes.

I prefer to utilize the sponge or alto by adding a suitable proportiou-sav from one to two and on e hall per eent. in broken pieeesto the molten metal as the latter is poured from the converter into the ladle; or a portion of the sponge may be added to the metal in the converter at a time between the oxidation of the silicon and the oxidation of the carbon. I prefer this method when more than one per cent. of the sponge is employed, thus obtain- 1n g a thorough ineorporation of the metals of the sponge with the molten iron and also avoiding lowering too mueh the temperature of the metal. in the ladle.

Having thus deseribed m v invention, what I claim is A ferruginous sponge (wintaining iron, calcium, aluminum, sodium, and ehrom ium, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix m vsigna in re in the presence of two witnesses.

ABRAHAM 'l. HAY.

\Vit nesses:

.I. s. Barnum, H. N. Low. 

